Middle East | The Daily Star

  • Yemeni rebel attack on Saudi airport kills one

    A Yemeni rebel attack on a civilian airport in southern Saudi Arabia killed a Syrian national and wounded 21 other civilians Sunday, a

  • Taliban insurgents threaten Afghan media

    The Taliban have issued a threat to Afghan media, saying journalists will be targeted unless news outlets stop broadcasting what they

  • Crushing blow for Erdogan

    Turkey’s opposition revelled yesterday in a landslide win in Istanbul’s re-run mayoral vote -- a blow for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

  • S Arabia launches special residency scheme for expats

    Saudi Arabia yesterday launched their new special residency scheme similar to green card systems applicable in other countries, aimed at

  • Plan faces broad Arab rejection

    Arab politicians and commentators greeted US President Donald Trump’s Middle East $50 billion economic vision with a mixture of

  • Regime strikes kill 4 civilians in Syria

    Syrian government air strikes on the rebel-held northwest Idlib region killed four civilians, two of them children, yesterday, a war monitor

  • Saudis can do more

    A US official said Wednesday that Saudi Arabia should do more to ensure accountability over the death of dissident writer Jamal Khashoggi but stopped short of blaming the crown prince after a UN probe linked him to the killing.

  • Iran won’t wage war

    President Hassan Rouhani said yesterday Iran would not wage war against any nation, while Russia, China told the United States it should drop what it called provocative plans to deploy more troops to the Middle East.

  • Jihadist rocket fire kills 12 civilians in Syria

    Rocket fire has killed 12 civilians in a regime-held village in northwestern Syria, state news agency SANA has said blaming former Al-

  • No ME deal without Palestinian state

    The head of the Arab League yesterday warned that attempts to solve the Israel-Palestinian conflict will be in vain without the

  • Israel launches ‘Trump Heights’ on Golan

    Israel approved in principle on Sunday a new community named after US President Donald Trump on a contested frontier zone with

  • Putin, Trump could meet briefly at G20

    The Kremlin said yesterday that Russian President Vladimir Putin and US counterpart Donald Trump could meet briefly at the G20 in

  • Won’t hesitate to deal with ‘threats’

    Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman accused arch-rival Iran of attacks on oil tankers in a vital Gulf shipping channel, adding he “won’t hesitate” to tackle any threats to the kingdom, according to an interview published yesterday.

  • Iran renews ultimatum

    Iran will continue scaling back compliance with a nuclear deal unless other signatories to the pact show “positive signals”, the Iranian president said yesterday as tensions with the United States escalated over tanker attacks in the Gulf region.

  • Syria flare-up kills 35 fighters,10 civillians

    At least 10 civilians and 35 combatants, mostly pro-regime forces, were killed yesterday in clashes and air strikes that erupted at dawn in northwestern Syria, a war monitor said.

  • US blames Iran for tanker attacks in Gulf of Oman, Iran rejects assertion

    The United States has blamed Iran for attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday that drove up oil prices and raised concerns about a new US-Iranian confrontation, but Tehran has bluntly denied the allegation.

  • Suicide bomber kills 9 in Afghanistan

    At least nine people, including four security personnel and five civilians were killed and 12 others injured by a suicide bomber in the eastern

  • Israel strikes Gaza after rocket fire

    Israeli warplanes bombed bunkers at a Hamas base in Gaza early yesterday following the first rocket fire from the territory since early

  • Gulf tension takes a new turn

    Two oil tankers were attacked in the Gulf of Oman yesterday, leaving one ablaze and both adrift, shipping firms said, driving oil prices as much as 4% higher over worries about Middle East supplies.

  • Japan's Abe warns of armed conflict amid soaring US-Iran tension

    Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has warned of unintended clashes in the crisis-hit Middle East after meeting the Iranian president in Tehran, amid a brewing confrontation between Iran and the United States.

  • Japan moves to defuse row

    Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday landed in Tehran on a mission to ease tensions between the US and Iran, just hours after Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen launched an attack on an airport in Saudi Arabia, wounding 26 people.

  • US can’t expect to stay safe

    Iran’s foreign minister warned the US yesterday that it “cannot expect to stay safe” after launching what he described as an economic

  • Syria flare-up leaves 83 fighters dead: monitor

    Fierce clashes between Russia-backed government forces and jihadists have left 83 combatants dead in northwestern Syria in the past 24 hours, a Britain-based war monitor said yesterday.

  • 4 killed as govt bus hit in Kabul blast

    At least four people were killed yesterday when a bomb tore through a bus in Kabul, an official said, marking the second day straight that

  • Iran president rules out talks until US acts ‘normal’

    Iran’s president yesterday ruled out negotiations with Washington until it acts “normal”, after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US

  • 10 killed in car bomb attack in Raqa

    Ten people were killed and 20 wounded Saturday in a suicide car bomb attack in Raqa, a former stronghold of the Islamic State group (IS)

  • 10 killed in Israeli attack in Syria following rocket fire

    Israel carried out air strikes in Syria yesterday in response to rare rocket fire from the neighbouring country, its military said, with a

  • Algerian council scraps July 4 presidential polls

    Algeria cannot hold a presidential election planned for July 4 due to a lack of valid candidates, its constitutional council said yesterday,

  • Three blasts hit Kabul, killing 1, injuring 17

    One person was killed and 17 others wounded yesterday in three successive blasts in Kabul, Afghan officials said, capping a murderous

  • OIC backs Palestinians

    A Saudi-hosted Islamic summit yesterday threw its support behind Palestinians ahead of a US-led peace plan suspected to be skewed in favour of Israel, as Muslim states rallied around Saudi Arabia over tensions with Iran.

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